Leaders of the East African Community (EAC) have directed the EAC Council of Ministers to fast-track verification for admission of the Federal Republic of Somalia into the regional bloc.

A communique issued late Friday at the end of the 22nd Ordinary Summit of the EAC heads of state in Tanzania’s northern city of Arusha said the leaders noted that the verification for admission to Somalia had not been undertaken. 

The EAC leaders directed the EAC Council of Ministers to expeditiously fast-track the verification in accordance with the EAC procedure for admission of new members into the EAC and report to the 23rd meeting of the summit, said the communique.

The 22nd ordinary summit of the EAC heads of state had a theme featuring Deepening Integration, Widening Cooperation. If admitted, the Federal Republic of Somalia will become the 8th member of the EAC after Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda.

 EAC leaders also received an update on the status of the inclusion of French and Swahili as official languages of the EAC in addition to English, said the communique.

Somalia could be the next country to join the East Africa Community (EAC) after the recent admission of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to the regional bloc.

Somali President Hassan Sheik Mohamud was a surprise guest at this week’s East Africa Heads of Summit in Arusha, Tanzania, fuelling speculation Somali’s admission to the bloc could be on the cards.

President Mohamud, who was re-elected last month after being voted out in 2017, met his Kenyan counterpart Uhuru Kenyatta in Nairobi earlier this week for bilateral talks in what is seen as a thawing of relations between the two countries.

And following his re-election, the two countries have given the strongest indication yet that they could resume the multimillion-shilling miraa (khat) trade.

Ironically, it is President Mohamud who banned the trade in his first term. 

EAC Secretary General Peter Mathuki at a press conference on Thursday in Arusha said Somalia was invited to the high-level meeting as a show of good faith in what could lay the grounds for its admission to the bloc. Without divulging more details, Mathuki said EAC “does not mind admitting another member to the trade bloc.”

Somalia’s push to join EAC last year did not materialise. With a population of about 16.8 million, Somalia’s addition to the bloc would create a market of about 317 million people.

This is at a time when the bloc has stepped up efforts to raise trade among member States. DRC’s admission to the bloc was finalised earlier this month ahead of the Heads of State Summit. This has helped boost the bloc’s aggregate Gross Domestic Product (GDP), edging out the dominance of the Economic Community of West African States. Source: People Daily